Based in Hamilton, Community Bikes is a nonprofit organization that works to refurbish donated bikes and distribute them to low-income children and adults in Madison County. The organization’s annual “Bike Distribution Day” oversees the donation of hundreds of bikes each spring, and it has placed over 5,000 bikes since its founding in 2008.
Community Bikes also hosts a program called In Tandem, for which they partner with Heritage Farms, a habilitation center that helps kids and adults with disabilities develop life skills and increase independence. Twice a week, In Tandem participants embark on a five mile tandem bike ride around Hamilton. Participants from Heritage Farms ride on the back seat and are called “stokers” for their job of “stoking the flames,” or pedaling. The “captains” in the front are local volunteers. Captains range in age from 16 to 80 and include retirees, university students, student-athletes and professors.
Community Bikes Founder Chuck Fox ’70 started the nonprofit 17 years ago as a way to reach out and address a real need in the community. For Fox, In Tandem is an integral part of his mission to have a positive, tangible impact.
“The evidence is simply in the response that we get each time we go out riding: the smiles. Craig, a long-time stoker from Heritage Farms, is a perfect example. He loves meeting people, riding and socializing,” Fox said. “That in and of itself is proof of this program taking shape as a fixture in the community. We ride the same route every time, but they couldn’t care less — they have the bells, horns, whistles. It’s wonderful.”
The In Tandem program runs every Monday and Thursday. Colleen McNerney, mechanic at Community Bikes and director of In Tandem, remarked on the bi-weekly scheduling.
“Some people in the [Heritage Farm] program have jobs. Actually, two of them work at Frank Dining Hall. We try to work around their lives and offer a built-in exercise routine,” McNerney said.
Tate McCormick, who works in employment services at Heritage Farms, helps to facilitate the biweekly rides. He follows the bikers in a van in case someone needs medical assistance or gets a flat tire. McCormick believes that the main benefit of the bike rides goes beyond exercise.
“These guys feel a little bit disassociated because they have disabilities,” McCormick said. “They understand things a lot differently than we do […] They love their community. Usually, when we ride, we see people waving and honking.”
“When the tandems go by, people smile,” McNerney said. “I don’t care how grumpy they are or what they are doing. They could be on the porch at the Colgate Inn, in a busy meeting. They will look up and smile. It’s just such a neat community feeling.”
In August, the Colgate Men’s Basketball team volunteered to be captains for In Tandem. The team has engaged in the community in multiple ways in the past, including working at the local food cupboard and greeting students at the Hamilton Elementary School on their first day of class.
“We love getting out in the community and supporting the fans who come and support us,” sophomore Ben Tweedy said. “We decided to go out and help all the kids out on the bikes for a day, which was great […] I love the kids down at Heritage Farms. That’s kind of the highlight of the day – getting to ride around the community. Being able to be there for them is great.”
McNerney was inspired to start In Tandem by a program she was a part of in Washington, D.C. called Tuesday Night Tandems, which served visually-impaired people.
“Every single person on the rear of the bike was blind or visually impaired,” McNerney said. “But they were lawyers, mathematicians and politicians.”
The Community Bikes organization has received international recognition for the work they do. In 2023, they won the Community Tool Grant sponsored by the brand Park Tool, which entailed a large donation of bike tools. The tools included two new bike stands, which are needed to work on a tandem but are very expensive.
Because of the grant, they now have a fully operational and volunteer mechanic shop capable of servicing tandems and repairing regular bikes, with room for four mechanics to work simultaneously. In addition to the Park Tool grant, Community Bikes has received funding from the Gorman Foundation, based in Oneida, N.Y.
“One of the challenges we have is getting people to volunteer. I always want to find new people […] I put posters up all over town to try and entice people,” McNerney said.
McNerney and Fox encouraged the Maroon-News readership to reach out if they are interested in getting involved.
